2014 Gubernatorial Election in Ekiti: The Limit of Propaganda and Challenge of Performance

Abstract

Democracy is a universally recognized ideal as well as a goal, which is based on common values shared by people throughout the world community irrespective of cultural, political, social and economic differences. It is thus a basic right of citizens to be exercised under conditions of freedom, equality, transparency and responsibility, with due respect to the plurality of views, and the interest of the polity. Therefore, election is a constitutional way that gives the people opportunities to vote to power those who will adequately represent their interests. Thus, political parties seek diverse means including ‘political propaganda’ to influence voter s decision and behaviour to its advantage in order to form government and administer the polity for a specific period on behalf of the electorates. The paper argues that election is periodic in a democracy and in between the periods governments are formed; measured by stakeholders and that these measurements have great input in the following period after the last election. Performance therefore becomes a key ingredient that any party willing to continue in government must exhibit in order to maintain control over the behaviour of the electorate at the election. Using ethnomethodological explanation, the paper revealed why and how Governor Fayemi lost the election in spite of his party propaganda machinery and his claim of performance as governor in the Ekiti governorship election in June 2014 where the people seem to be saying ‘don’t think for us’ ‘ask us’ what we want. The paper concludes that the reactions of the state governors of APC control states in Nigeria after the election in Ekiti confirms the people’s perception of performance and a limit to propaganda.